Now is not the best time to be setting ad rate records - part II

Now is not the time to be setting records. I said it when Fox announced 30-seconds on American Idol would cost you $705,000 (a record for any Prime Time network buy) and I'll say it again now, that it is rumored that ABC will break a Super Bowl record by charging between $2.5 - $2.6 million for the ability to message to inebriated revellers who either have the sound turned down and/or have music in the background and/or are shouting and screaming and drowning out the sounds from the Tube.

Perhaps a few skeptics wouldn't mind sending me some recent case studies (here's a thought: we're so busy trying to prove new marketing, why not prove old marketing using current measures/metrics/market conditions) to document the success/ROI associated with Super Bowl buys. I'll be glad to publish them. For purpose of this exercise, let's look at the past 3 years, which I think would fairly accurately reflect the amount of change/evolution in the current market.

Let me preempt one bit of pushback...surely this is a just a product of supply-demand? After all, the market will put up with what the market will bear. In other words, if marketers feel this is outrageous, why are they prepared to foot the bill?

I'm asked this question often...part of it is explained by the "change is good, but not on my watch" and part by "no-one ever got fired for putting TV on the plan" - both I feel are no longer specifically valid, nor correct.

But let me take this one step further...when you're about to purchase a digital camera for $299, and the salesperson says, "that'll be $326", in addition to the various reasons why/warrantees you don't need/etc., he explains, "it's just another $27" - in other words, it's a relative, incremental increase versus the absolute purchase price.

Hey, what's another $300,000 between friends, right? WRONG - give me $300K, I'll show you what I can do with it. Period.

One other thing, although there are (evidently) enough marketers who choose to foot the bill, there are (more than) enough who have baulked at the asking price and/or at least question its efficacy, other than appearing on the Today Show.

Case in point, Frito-Lay, who have chosen to take their business elsewhere:

Marketing executive Irene Rosenfield says that, while the spots they usually run get a lot of press and other buzz there's not much payoff in terms of actual sales.